Pupil Premium

Pupil Premium

At St Michael’s Church of England High School, all members of staff and governors accept responsibility for disadvantaged children and are committed to meeting their pastoral, social and academic needs within a caring environment. As with every child in our care, a child who is considered to be ‘socially disadvantaged’ is valued, respected and entitled to develop to his or her full potential, irrespective of need or disadvantage.

Common barriers for children can be less support at home, weak language and communication skills, lack of confidence and independence (particularly in Key Stage 3), more frequent behaviour difficulties, and attendance and punctuality issues. There may also be complex family situations that prevent children from fulfilling their potential.

The school receives additional funding in the form of pupil premium for children entitled to free school meals in the last 6 years (FSM6), children in care and children of parents in the armed forces (Service Premium). From September 2014, pupils recently adopted from care under the Adoption and Children Act 2002 and children who have left care under a Special Guardianship or Residence Order will also be eligible for additional funding.

The DfE is not dictating how schools should spend this money, but are clear that schools will need to employ the strategies that they know will best support their children to increase their progress and ‘diminish the difference’ between the performance of disadvantaged children and that of their peers. Since September 2012, we have been required to publish online information about how we have used the pupil premium. This ensures that parents/carers and others are made fully aware of the attainment of students covered by the pupil premium and the extra support that they receive.

The pupil premium provides the following funding for students:

who have been in receipt of free school meals (FSM6) at any point in the past 6 years (£935 per child)

who have been continuously looked after for the past six months (£2,300 per child)

who are adopted from care under the Adoption and Children Act 2002 or who have left care under a Special Guardianship or Residence Order (£2,300 per child)

whose parents are currently serving in the armed forces, or whose parent/guardian is in receipt of a pension from the MoD (£300 per child)

In making provision for socially disadvantaged students, the governors and staff at St Michael’s recognise that not all students who receive free school meals will be socially disadvantaged and that not all students who are socially disadvantaged are registered or qualify for free school meals. As such we reserve the right to allocate the pupil premium funding to support any child or groups of children the school has legitimately identified as being socially disadvantaged.

The strategy for the use of pupil premium will be reviewed in September of each year to ensure that we are meeting needs appropriately.

2018/19 Cohort

Year Group

No. of DS

Total on roll

%DA

7

93

241

38.6

8

107

237

45.1

9

111

241

46.1

10

74

240

30.8

11

88

234

37.6

Total

473

1193

39.6

The school’s aims in spending the pupil premium funding, procedures for ensuring these aims are met and reporting measures are all provided in the Pupil Premium Policy. The Pupil Premium Strategy Statement for 2018-2019 can be downloaded here. The strategy for 2017-2018 can be downloaded here. There is £430,190 ﻿funding available for pupil premium during the financial year 2018/19.

November 2016 – Feedback revealed 80% of students found the workshop beneficial.

Year 7 students: “It has helped by teaching me better ways to revise.”

“I feel it has helped because I now know how to memorise something quickly.”

Thematic Approach: Euro 16 Project

Questionnaire (adapted from the REAL Project - Raising Educational Achievement for All) revealed that 69% of the students who participated in the project improved their learning scores; average attitude to learning score increased by 3; 54% of the students changed their opinion of wanting to go to school.